| After asking around, I finally
found Putian Church, founded nearly one hundred years ago by American
missionaries. At Putian Church, Sunday morning is a time of education
as well as worship, but the education time takes forms we in the
West might not expect. From 7:30 to 8:00 an elder leads the early
arrivals, mostly older people, through a verse or short passage
of scripture. Everyone reads, recites, and finally memorizes the
passage. As I see it, three types of “education” are
taking place simultaneously. First, since many Chinese believers
have little familiarity with the Bible, the weekly Scripture memorization
adds to their knowledge of God’s word. Second, for believers
who are illiterate or semi-literate, the time reading and reciting
is a form of literacy training. I fall into the semi-literate
category so I can see the benefits of this approach. Third, many
of the older people speak primarily Fuzhou dialect rather than
standard Chinese. Since the elder speaks standard Chinese, the
memorization time is also a lesson in speaking and understanding
standard Chinese.
From 8:00 to 8:30, the education takes a different form. Under
a strict music master, the congregation practices the hymns that
will be sung during the service. We practice first the melodies,
phrase by phrase, using do, re, mi and then move on to singing
the words of all the verses.
The worship service itself begins at 8:30 and continues until
it is finished, usually around 10:00 but sometimes earlier or
later. The service is very similar to that in an American Protestant
church. Each week we say the Apostles’ Creed, read a psalm
responsively, sing the “Gloria Patri” and several
hymns, and recite the Lord’s Prayer. The big difference
is the fact that the sermon is given twice, once in dialect and
once in standard Chinese. The preacher delivers the sermon in
Fuzhou dialect, and the translator, who stands shoulder to shoulder
with the preacher in an old-fashioned elevated pulpit, translates
the sermon sentence by sentence into standard Chinese. The preacher
and the translator have worked together for some time so the sermon
goes very smoothly. I look forward to making Putian church my
church home in Fuzhou.
Now a word about SARS and the churches in China. When I attended
Putian Church on May 11, the service was conducted as usual and
no one was wearing a mask. At Flower Lane Church, however, there
have been major changes. The service has been reduced to a sermon
and nothing more. Congregational praying and singing have been
eliminated on the theory that such activities, which involve opening
the mouth, are more likely to spread disease than simple preaching
to which the congregation listens quietly. Also, all meetings
at the church during the week have been cancelled. In Beijing,
churches have been closed for several weeks, as have all types
of places where large numbers of people might gather. How difficult
it would be to face the threat of SARS without the comfort of
attending church.
I would ask that you remember in your prayers the people of China
who are living every day with the reality of SARS and the fear
of the unknown.
In Christ’s love,
Barbara Maynard Penney
The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
172
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